Marco Rota's career

Marco Rota was born in Milan on 18 September, 1942. He made his first comics story in 1958. In the 60s he made a few stories starring Superman and Batman. He also made some erotic stories for "ABC" - a weekly not recommended. If you believe Rota has forgotten how to draw beautiful women, take a look at the drawing below or in some of his stories). In the period for 1974 to 1988, Marco Rota was editor for the Italian Disney Comics publisher, Mondadori. He is now working for the Danish Egmont.

Marco Rota's drawings

Rota is inspired by Carl Barks, Al Taliaferro, Floyd Gottfredson and Paul Murry. He has a characteristic way of drawing. This is most easily seen in the way he draws Donald head, the way he draws cities and his use of the panels.

Marco Rota has his own way of drawing Donald's head. Donald's cap is usually drawn to the side of the top of the head, unlike the Donald of most other artists. In Rota's Mac Paperini (Andold "Wild Duck" Temerary) stories, he has put a small head on Andold Temerary's head - imitating Andold's emotions (the first time was in I-A-277). When Andold is angry, so is the head on the helmet, and when Andold speaks, the head speaks.

One way of recognising Rota's stories is to look at the way he draws the panels. It looks like Rota does not like to make only standard panels. In his newer stories, we find panels curving at one or several sides. In a 10-pager, there are usually many such panels.

Now, Rota is, unfortunately, not always given good scripts to draw. The last few stories have been rather poor. But when he is given a good story (and sometimes when the story is not-so-good), Rota inserts small, funny details like a bird wearing a cap like Donald, posters pointing to other stories by Rota, names of friends or colleges and so on. If I have time before the second coming, I will compose a page about these details.

Oh, yes. Rota signs or put his initials in his stories. In "The Night of the Saracene", we find the names of several editors of "Topolino", and sometimes we find the signature "Marks". Marco Rota started making this signature after seeing a picture with the dedication "For Mario Gentilini, Carl Barks." I may make a page about these signatures some day.

Rota's Donald Duck stories

Rota has made stories with Mickey but I have mostly read Rota's Duck-stories. The first story by Rota I remember having read, is a story about Mac Paperini (Andold "Wild Duck" Temerary). I am planning a page on him (probably an exegesis of an Andold-story). This is my next project. I also greatly enjoyed "From Egg to Duck". It is a very good story as long as you ignore Rota's making Scrooge and Grandma Duck brother and sister.

In Rota's stories we see a more urban Donald compared to Barks' and Rosa's stories. Rota likes to draw cities, and it shows - he goes the extra mile to draw windows on (almost) all buildings while most other artists draw only a few windows to tell the readers "this is supposed to be a house." This makes Duckburg more credible. It does not look like people's houses are without windows.

Rota's Mickey Mouse stories

In addition to his Donald Duck-stories, Rota has also made some Mickey Mouse Stories. It is easy to see the development in his drawing style if you compare his older stories to his new Mickey Mouse stories. In the recent stories his drawings are as good as those in his more well-known Donald Duck stories. A good example is D 95138 "Operasjon Slukhals." Rota has, btw, stated that he does not like the transformation of Mickey to a detective helping the police. I am sure many readers agree.